A few weekends ago, I was listening to Marketplace Money when they ran an interview of Scrubs star Donald Faison[3]. Faison got his big break with the movie Clueless[4] and then followed that up with Scrubs[5]. The entire piece was about him making bad money decisions and then turning it around. He bought a $20,000 car with the $12,000 from Clueless, then had trouble when the third car payment came around.

So he hired a business manager.

Wikipedia defines a business manager[6] as someone who manages the work of others in order to run a business efficiently. In the acting and music industry, they supervise their business affairs and financial matters. It’s in that context that I want to offer up the idea that you should get your own business manager.

I don’t mean you should go out and actually hire someone and put them on your payroll. I mean you should get someone, a friend, a family member, someone you trust, to help you with your finances. If you’re struggling, and the hardest part is to realize that you’re struggling, then you need to run your ideas by someone else. You need someone who can give you a unbiased third party perspective.

Faison put it best in the interview:

FAISON: Now I have somebody who yells at me anytime I make an outlandish purchase.

Sometimes that’s all we need, a different perspective to put everything into focus.